Our View: EPA would be improvement over DNR

5:20 PM,
Nov. 16, 2012

Written by

Press-Citizen Editorial Board

It only took five years, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finally has decided that critics of Iowa's water quality are right in their complaints that the Iowa Department of Natural Resources has been going too easy on livestock operations that pollute the state's waterways with manure.

In fact, DNR's efforts have been so lacking that the EPA has informed the state it may step in and take over enforcement of the federal Clean Water Act unless the agency makes sweeping changes.

In July, federal regulators detailed the findings of their investigation into long-standing ...